Lemon curd

Apparently lemon curd is an English invention and was originally called lemon cheese. Recipes for lemon cheese can be found now (it’s really no different). The earliest known appearance of lemon curd in a recipe book was in 1844, in The Lady’s Own Cookery Book by Lady Charlotte Campbell Bury. However its not quite the same recipe we’re now used to; for a start it doesn’t include eggs.

Here’s Lady Campbell Bury’s original recipe:

Into a quart of thick sweet cream put the juice of three lemons, with the rind finely grated; sweeten it to your taste; beat it very well; then put it into a sieve, with some fine muslin underneath it, and let it stand all night. Next day turn it out, and garnish with preserved orange or marmalade.Half the above quantity makes a large cheese. Do not beat it till it comes to butter, but only till it is near coming. It is a very pretty dish.

Lemon cheese goes back much further than the 19th century, but I’ve not been able to find an actual recipe book reference listed for it. I wonder if it was actually an experiment and adaption of a curd tart recipe, as these do go back to Tudor times or even earlier. Curd tarts often included lemon when it was possible to get hold of it, probably only in the kitchens of the most richest households in order to show off their travels or trading connections. Modern recipes show a lot of variation and I’ve listed my current favourite.

Lemon curd is a simple custard without milk or cream. It has a smooth consistency, cooling to become spreadable. As it includes eggs and butter, it doesn’t have a long shelf life like a jam or marmalade, which is why it’s not technically classed as a preserve. However, it’ll keep for a couple of weeks in a sterilised jar in the fridge. In reality it won’t last that long as it’ll get eaten first. As well as a cake filling and essential for meringue pies, use lemon curd as a sandwich filling, to fill crêpes or mix it with double cream after it’s been cooled and it becomes a syllabub. You can also substitute the lemons for limes, oranges, tangerines etc and even non-citrus fruit like raspberries or blackberries – just stick to fruit that has some sharpness to it.

Notes

I’ve given amounts which fill a small kilner jar about ⅔ full when made (you can see this in the photo). This proved enough for a batch of eight large cupcakes and one medium-sized meringue pie.

Equipment

Heavy based saucepan

Balloon whisk

Jar/bowl (sterilised glass jar if you intend to keep the lemon curd for a while)

Ingredients

Lemons, large – 2

Eggs, large – 2 plus one extra yolk

Unsalted butter at room temperature and chopped into small cubes – 112g

Granulated sugar to taste – about 300g (or more to taste)

Sterilising glass jars

To do this just put a clean glass jar in the oven at about 130˚C for 20 minutes

Please use gloves to take the jars out when done!

Also, if you’re sterilising a Kilner jar, don’t put the rubber seal in the oven; it’ll just melt. Wash these in hand-hot water and leave to dry on a kitchen towel, this should be enough as it’s not actually touching the lemon curd

<span style="font-size: medium;"Alternatively the hottest setting on your dishwasher – if you use one – will sterilise jars enough for curds and preserves

Recipe

Whisk the eggs up lightly in a saucepan and then add all the other ingredients in

Put it over a medium heat and start to whisk – and don’t stop whisking (this isn’t something you can leave and come back to). If you stop whisking it could end up looking like scrambled eggs!

Keep whisking until the curd comes together and thickens. As this is a small amount of lemon curd that’s being made it’ll probably only take 4 – 5 minutes

Once it’s thickened, lower the temperature right down but keep lightly whisking for another few minutes, just to ensure it thickens enough

Take it off the heat and pour it into a jar or bowl (a sterilised jar if you think you won’t use this immediately)

[…] seen for too long as old-fashioned and deserve a bit of a resurgence. Yes, they are very old (in my lemon curd recipe post I talk about the first recorded recipe for ‘lemon cheese’ which appeared in […]

[…] Any sized glass jars are good for preserve making – I try not to use many for storage so I have a stash in the garage for jams and such. Find advice on sterilisation on my lemon curd recipe page […]

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All recipes in this blog are my own (a tiny number are based on other recipes and are clearly attributed in this instance). All photographs and artworks are my own.

If you want to use an excerpt or recipe you may do so with appropriate credit and links to my site. Unauthorised use and/or duplication of my recipes and images is prohibited/copyright without prior permission.